Give me a reason to live
by Makany
Summary: This a continuation of the series Shiki: As Natsuno woke up, Akira and Kaori were sitting next to him. Because the siblings know that he is alive, he can t think of ending his life. Now he is trying to figure out why he survived and is even bumping into his worst enemy. However this isn t the only problem he need to deal with...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don´t own Shiki.**

**Author´s note: This is my first fanfiction in English, so please lead me in the right direction if I made mistakes. Reviews are welcome. I´m also a great fan of the series and the manga (read manga first). The drawing is pretty good which made things sad because so many needed to die. This is a continuation after the fire from Satoba. Sorry, if the story is awkward. (I´m a confusing person) Hope you will enjoy!**

A sharp pain went through his head. Someone was talking not far away from his ears. His body couldn´t move at all, his throat was dry and as he opened his eyes, the pain got worse. With a blurry sight Natsuno wasn´t able to see the two persons who were bowing to him. Time to time his blue eyes could recognize the two humans. They weren´t stranger, they had a familiar young face. The three were so close that it made the jinrou feel more sick than he did a few a seconds ago. To see him in such a state. Carefully the in tears covered girl reached her hand to his face. "Yuuki- san, you are finally aw…" Her hand got slapped away. These two never learned! Why did they even return to him? The confusing look had turned in a doubtfully glare. "Do you never learn? I am undead! You should kill me"

The blue-haired boy realized it. Why was he still living? The younger sibling of the girl grabbed the undead´s shoulders to turn his face to him. "What are you talking, Nii-san? We know you´re still the same. You saved me, didn´t you! And did you forget your dream about leaving this village?" Like always Akira was loud as ever. Even Kaori gave him a supported look. But suddenly a shout made the two flinch. "Shut up. Natsuno is sleeping!" It was Natsuno´s father who glared at the two Tanakas. At the time he captured sight of his awaked son, he attacked him with a big hug. The brown-haired girl made happy expression as things went well. But the smile vanished in an instant as Natsuno spoke.

"How did I survive?" The teenager expected the blank expression of Akira and Kaori. This was obvious because they didn´t knew that he wanted to kill himself with Tatsumi. How was he actual able to survive his suicide? With a freaking dynamite! Or maybe he was dead and was living in some kind dream land where dead souls rest in peace. But Kaori and Akira were alive. They succeed escaping the village, right? Natsuno pinched his arm and felt the aching sensation. He was alive; the boy came to conclusion and sat straight up to look around the room. A plain empty room which only had a futon where the jinrou was sitting.

"We found you in the village on the ground", Kaori stuttered and offered Natsuno a glass of water. Akira nodded in agreement with his sister. "After the fire was clear, we returned because we were worried about you and we found you covered in a blanket." This was awkward. The last place where he should have been was the forest. So how did he get into the village? Something smelled fishy. "Really, you only found me" Both gave each other a questionable glance then all of sudden Mr. Yuki said something. "Someone was digging graves and ran away as we arrived" The siblings stared surprised at the mental ill man. "There was someone!?" Akira shouted shocked because he hadn´t noticed it. The light brown-haired boy went to the window which had a perfect view of the half burned village. The father was right. There were many bulge lined up on the ground. Each thorough made grave had one simple flower. "Nii-san, could it be that the person rescued you?" His eyes sparkled of curiosity. "It´s like a hero" It was a good thing that Akira overcame the horror which played in the village but something still gave Natsuno Goosebumps.

If he was "alive" did that mean there could be a chance that other Shikis survived, for an example Tatsumi. Both were jinrous and Tatsumi was stronger than him. That clearly made things dangerous. If that man ever wanted to kill the boy, Kaori and Akira would be in danger. Natsuno gritted his teeth. "Natsuno-san, what´s wrong?" Kaori asked with a worried tone.

Natsuno couldn´t say his suspicion and thought about another big problem "Nothing specific, just thinking about my future…" The blue-eyed jinrou was completely convinced to close with his life. However being saved from the dead didn´t make him happy at all, even if the two siblings weren´t scared of him anymore, there was no meaning in his cursed life. What should he do from now on? Start a new life as fifteen year old boy and go to school like normal humans do. Unlike a regular Shiki he could walk under the sun and had no need drinking blood, normal food would work, too. The only curious thing he would like to investigate was the unknown person who might rescue him. The boy will lead a never ending life until somebody wanted to kill him or he just do another suicide. What a great life, Natsuno thought sarcastically and watched the younger students who managed to know what he was thinking.

"Nii-san, you can fulfill your dream and go to the school you ever wanted. Mr. Yuki said you can eat normal food and the greatest thing is, you´re moving to a big city. So you´re able to fulfill your dream" Akira grinned satisfied. Natsuno narrowed his eyebrows to show them that he couldn´t help to force himself to rethink. With make-up he could look older and would have no problem, if someone ever asked his age. After finishing school he could get a job where he is no need to show his face. Nowadays there were works which you only need a laptop to finish their duties like the people who traveled over the whole world. They just had to send it. That would really suit him because he always wanted to work international. But what would happen after this? The immortal was the problem. In one day he had to stop working. Should he continue working after changing identity? Maybe he should watch over Akira and Kaori just to check that there weren´t any Shiki attacking them. But this would only get more problems, Tastumi could go after them. Lightly, Kaori poked on Natsuno´s arm. "It´s better if you don´t think much about the situation."Perhaps Kaori was right. First he should worry more about what was happening next. "We will stay in contact, Nii-san", Akira shouted to him as Natsuno and his father entered the car.

Having moved to a city, the blue-haired boy live turned slowly normal, even if his mother didn´t return like the father mentioned from her letter. He didn´t need much time to get used to the school because he wasn´t there to make friends. The only annoying thing was the girls there. Some of them acted a bit like the pink-haired Megumi Shimizu, dressed fancy just to make somebody like you or acted mostly troublesome, and the boy thought, the people in school were more serious about their studies. There was nothing that could be done about it, only to ignore them, unless they get attached to him. Then he would be angry. But something he never dreamed of, awkwardly in the same time so expected, his nightmare came true.

**Author´s note: It´s time to place your bet. Who is the person? No, that´s a joke but you could guess in the review. Hope you enjoyed it! I think I parted the text right...**


	2. Chapter 2

**I´m not quite proud about the chapter because I corrected it many times. So I will say in the beginning, sorry for the crappyness. The reason I´m writing is just to have my fantasy in black and white. **

**To Salt-the-Catgirl: Thank you for your help. I´m happy you are reading this. **

**YPIAS: Your postman is a Shiki SPAN: Shiki´s panties are nice**

A roaring machine stood in front of the big school gate. The blue-eyed boy just quietly watched the big grinning driver. The two spiky hair bundles which looked like cat-ears were unmistakable. A bored sigh escaped from the lips of the teenager. This had to be true. "It has been a long time since I saw you, shitty brat", the man greeted impolitely and made more sounds with his red motorcycle. Natsuno didn´t answer and kept staring at him like he was going to murder him. His hands slid to his pocket where he hid a sharp knife. "You don´t seem to be surprised, shitty brat. Moreover you seemed alive unlike the other person…" Tatsumi noticed and gave him a questionable glance.

Unlike the other person? Who did he meant, the boy thought "Aren´t you convince to die like last time. What makes you so motivated?" The younger jinrou could almost imagine that he had headache. "I already knew you may be alive. This is reason enough…" The combat knife was in reach. "Don´t even think about it. I´m not here to kick your ass" The sky blue-haired mentioned, noting the beige bag on the teenager´s waist. "But I want to kick yours, Mr. Fluffy" A vein popped out of the forehead from the muscular man.

In truth Tatsumi wanted to kill the threatening jinrou, too, however something restrained him. He had other reason to appear in front of the cheeky boy. One of his small reasons to not kill was that he would gather to much attention from the people: An adult fighting with a student in front of a school could bring many problems with. There were already some persons noticing the two who even had the intention to call the police. Still, this wouldn´t be worth enough to hold him back, the irritation which the boy always gave him was too big. Probably his huge problem in his mind was that someone was watching him in this moment. But the jinrou didn´t know where. He shouldn´t risk any wrong moves or else his leader would be angry.

"Each time I see you´re stupid face, I begin to hate you more. " he growled, grinding his teeth together, his fangs haven´t grown yet. "We get it. Now what do you want?" The violet-haired boy perceived no real danger from the other undead but still snarled his words, not caring if his anger was shown. Tatsumi´s eyebrow faintly lifted. "Did you meet …" The adult stopped abruptly and threw a quick glance in an opposite direction of the school where a green, yellow painted delivery truck parked. It stopped in front of a well-known sushi restaurant. The yellow-eyed man sensed the stare once more which followed him until the school. The known sadistic smile spread on his lips when he his eyes met for a second with the ones of the (truck) driver who swiftly turned his face to the sushi master again. A grey cap covered the mail man´s face. "Watching, huh?", came out of Tatsumi and looked at the teenager back. "I´m going now. I don´t want any stress" The motorbike was set on and the man was about to drive but a question made him stop.

"How did you survive?" Natsuno couldn´t easily forget this question. Maybe it would help to find the `someone`. Tatsumi made a weird face and stroked his chin like someone in a drama that was in thought. "Mmmmm…how, mmh? Oh, I know I saw him…Too bad, I forgot his name aaand… his face. He saved us, you know?" His mocking smile grew; he knew the boy was already aware of the unknown person, nevertheless he couldn´t help to see the violet-haired in pain and threw another glance at the driver who was carrying now the boxes in the truck. Natsuno followed the gaze and ended up staring at the brand of the truck. YPIAS could be read on the car. A hint? Before he realized that Tatsumi was gone, the man waved him with the back turned to him and drove along the road until he disappeared.

The violet-haired boy almost believed that it was a trick to distract him from the question however the driver self seemed to act suspicious, he quickly went into the driver seat as Natsuno began to stare at him. The boy wanted to cross the road until someone touched his shoulder. For a second the memory of his persistent friend shoot through his mind, it was always like that, when he let his hopes high, the sweet but bitter voice ranged in his ear, calling his name. How many times he promised himself to forget him, how many times… He wouldn´t come back, would he? He saw him dead on the wooden board, and If he was there, why wasn´t he standing beside him? It made only things painful and it became worse when he realized the one who was touching his shoulder wasn´t Tohru. His father stood beside him. "Wasn´t that guy from the village?", the grey-haired man spoke and jumped back as the angry glare of his son met him. He came at a bad timing; moreover he made him think of that person again. "Stop appearing suddenly" the jinrou said in an icy voice and walked past his old man to get into the car.

While driving home the father tried to make a normal conversation. "How was school?" No answer. "Did you get along with …" His mouth shut after almost finishing the questions and looked on the street to avoid another glare of Natsuno. If he ended his sentence Natsuno wouldn´t talk to him the rest of the day, and that meant he remembered something about the village which made him sad, very sad. Since when did he get so sensitive? The village was always so unimportant. What made him like that? This was really untypically for his son. The car finally stopped. They arrived at the district where their house was. No forest was in sight but a green garden decorated the front door of the light in green colored house. Outside it seemed to be a typical European-styled house but in the inside everything was pretty normal (beside the cameras in there). If the father couldn´t live in a village anymore where he carelessly could open door, at least he had installed a security system. Their house was built near the city however the district was quite calm place. Mr. Yuki enjoyed the sight of the little garden´s flowers unlike his son who immediately disappeared behind the door. Always the same, there were no difference when they lived in the village. Only that Natsuno became more unsocial than back then. If the father remembered right, there was a boy who kept sticking on his son´s side, even after many refusals. Like a puppy, he thought. Maybe he should get one. This would definitely help his son. But just for case he should ask.

After finishing his homework his gaze was glued on the window. His room was on the second floor. Nobody could suddenly stand in front of the window unless they would jump. However Natsuno could hear faintly sound which neared the house. He stood up and peeked outside before closing the window to not let any cold air in. He sensed it, the person who was standing outside. The boy wasn´t afraid anymore, he was already an undead. What would the stranger gain? Or, could it be a stalker? No, the light scent of blood was smelled on the person and it was an unknown scent which he never smelled.

The person knocked on the glass and the jinrou could finally see a little girl who stood on the roof. Her big eyes stared at the boy with a desperately look. She knocked again, and the window opened. Natsuno knew the person indirectly, he only knew by hearing stories about her, the leader of Shiki, Sunako, the one who made things worse in first place. Still, the feeling at his heart were mixed, (that would explain why the undead could enter the house), he just sat simply on his bed, watching the girl silently who was getting something out of her little pink bag. The color pink made the boy shiver. What did she want? A tiny metal can was placed on his table. Her almost black eyes turned to the boy again and spoke. "I need your help…"

Natsuno couldn´t help to laugh sarcastically and banged his fist on the wall, leaving a dent. His eyes turned in a flash dark as the night "Are you freaking kidding me?!" The scared girl backed away but unexpectedly shouted back. "Let me finish my sentence! It´s not like I want to ask for help volunteer. I have no choice. I must help him" Her voice sank and continued after finally getting the attention of the boy "I sent Tatsumi to you but as expected he didn´t tell you."

The conversation was quite awkward. Normally, someone would kill her because of `murdering` the villager however the boy just wanted his peace in mind and massaged his poles. Natsuno didn´t want to have a talk or listen any of her words. It was her fault in first place. It was her idea that she wanted to make a village out of undead. She was fault that his friend ended being an okiagari. Why were always the bad guys showing up? But he forced himself. He had nothing better to do. "So what should he tell me?" Sunako fumbled with her hands and began to talk from the start. "There is a certain servant who you might already hear about, unless the fact he became a servant"

The leader self felt strange in this moment, going this far to help someone´s condition in visiting a former enemy "Get to the point" "I´m leading a grand firm which also haves a post office branch named YPIAS" The boy remembered the truck near the school. Tatsumi was watching the driver. So it was a hint, the jinrou came to conclusion and tried to image how the fragile girl was managing paperwork. "He is working in a specific quarter. If you might be interested, I will give you the address." The violet-haired okiagari ended up staring at her blankly, was this some kind of joke? The situation was in first place strange, now it only became worse. Visiting his place like nothing and babbled shit about helping, if it were a trap, things would make more sense.

"My questions: Why don´t you mention his name? What reason do you have to make something stupid and why should I trust you?" A small smile formed her lips, her eyes showed pity. "Because it seemed right for me." Her eyes went to the floor" I made a promise never to tell but I don´t want to see this soulless eyes anymore. Why did the smile of the Shiki vanish completely? There is no need to take someone´s life because a single bite never kills a human. Satoba incident was over and still the smile didn´t return. Wasn´t there an adage which said leave the past behind and look forward to live. Unlike me who want to live, he wants to die. This life is sad however Muroi-san taught me that death is never a real solution. I want to show him that, too. That life can be sometimes good and enjoyable if you have a dear person beside you. Tatsumi, Muroi-san and the servant are dear to me and it makes me feel happy. I feel more happiness if my dear persons feel happiness, too. But the servant isn´t happy. I can´t make him happy. He´s like a marionette, numb and soulless. Always trying to kill itself", a sob escaped, and her hands moved to her tiny ears like she remembered some horrible sounds "Always stabbing his heart, he don´t die. Cutting his head, he don´t die. Burning in the sun, he don´t die."

She made suddenly a pause and looked at Natsuno with her shocked eyes. "Did you ever saw a Shiki burned to death?" Slowly, the boy shook his head, feeling the chills running down to his spin. The girl became creepy. "Me neither. Tatsumi killed them before they get too noisy. The servant didn´t scream, and did you know what? He stopped burning. His skin returned… but, but, but wasn´t it painful, aren´t the things he does to himself painful? When I look at him, it seemed more that I got stabbed. How the stakes pierced my whole body. I can´t bring him happiness, I finally realized that and that´s why I want you to turn him back. You´re the only one who could do this and… who knows what will happen after an encounter" With these words she quickly jumped out of the window, leaving the frozen boy behind. She didn´t even give him the address, Natsuno noticed.

He went to his wooden table, opened the little can and found many red pills and a description. It showed how to use it and where the pills could be ordered, there even was a phone number, however it didn´t show what the pills were. The firm called SPAN. Weird name, but the boy didn´t really care about. First he wasn´t thinking about helping the Shiki however her long talk had an effect on him, he became interested, he would finally find the person who brought him back. But a Shiki that can´t die seemed suspicious. Was there some kind of trick or was this immortality?

**First of all, I know that a Shiki needs to hide from the sun and dies from getting his head cut or gets staked. But I have reasons… Nobody ever saw a Shiki burned to death and the incident with the head… you only need to think about Megumi. So about the following, there won´t be cruel torture… I think. Thank you for reading my crappy writing! **


	3. Chapter 3

Slowly her lids opened, seeing the light of the glass decorated chandelier. The light literally danced with the gems, conjuring a small smile on the white porcelain face. Even if the light was no match with the real sun, it made Sunako happy just being able to see any light. This was one thing which nobody could take from a Shiki. But this wasn´t her only reason to smile, past the few days she received a call from her servant Tatsumi. He said he would come as soon as he could after searching for some survivors. The jinrou really knew how to make the leader excited like a little girl waiting for a present.

She rose her bottom from the expensive wooden chair and went out from the chamber. The sun was still shining. Sunako knew that, she always woke in the same time up, when it was afternoon. However in a time like this, there weren´t any problems, if a Shiki went with an umbrella outside. Taking her favorite dotted umbrella from the stand, she stepped down the marble stairs, seeing the junior monk watering the flowers. "Good afternoon, Mr. Muroi" the girl greeted, making the man flinch. She chuckled. "Did I surprise you?" The glasses wearing jinrou smiled a little. "Yes, I didn´t notice you. I was in thought" "In thought, about your book?" The younger okiagari shook his head. " I was thinking about the survivors. They´re definitely drowned in fear if they arrive. The whole massacre was just horrible, to think that killing the Shiki will..." the monk didn´t talk further, he knew where the talk would end and turned his head to the vase. "Any phone calls from Tatsumi?" Sunako shook her head. "No..."

Finally someone hooted in front of the fairy-tale like mansion, making the two okiagari rise their head. "Tatsumi!" the leader shouted and ran (which almost seemed to be storming) to the door. Of course, having her umbrella with her, she went outside, looking at a big red truck. Mr. Muroi followed her a few minutes later, staring like Sunako at the truck.

The light-blue-haired jinrou jumped out of the driver seat and watched silently his leader. Then he grinned. "It´s good that your safe, Sunako-san" The girl nodded contently and detected another person getting from the six-wheeler. Mysteriously, the person seemed to be fine under the sun and she took a few steps toward the Shiki, forgetting the fact that this okiagari had no sun protection. "So you survived" She clapped happily her hands together, still being careful enough so that the sun rays didn´t meet her skin. However she got no reaction from the younger Shiki, he simply gave her an empty look. Sunako sank her head, catching sight of a big scar on the chest which could be easily seen through the many holes of the blood stained pullover. How cruel... how many times did they stake him?, the black-haired girl thought in shock and turned her head to Tatsumi. "How many actually survived?"

The muscular man scratched the back of his head. "I searched through the whole city. Only three survived, if you wouldn´t count me in. He and another Shiki came with me." and pointed his finger at the okiagari who was standing in front of the leader. Sunako could have expected that the surviving rate would be that low, still it was frustrating and went inside to not let any risk in burning under the sun. Her black eyes were still fixed at the non-talking Shiki who didn´t have any problems with the sun. "Tatsumi, when night comes, will you get the other Shiki" "Yes" and the jinrou opened the door for her.

Like Sunako who was asking herself about the weird proprieties of the Shiki, Mr. Muroi felt pity just by looking at the in shredded clothed Shiki. There were no true life sign in him. Did guilt already devoured him? The gray-haired man didn´t know. He could only imagine how far the expression changed from the last time he saw it.

The three okiagari sat on the long red couch,while the junior monk was making tea. "I have many questions, Tatsumi" "I know" "And I want to know about the change of him." pointing her colored nail at the sun-resistance Shiki "Are you able to explain it?" The loyal jinrou nodded. "I can but..." "Then would you mind if you share your memories?" "Of course not!" A talk which was leaded by the leader was always pressuring to him, even if he served Sunako a long time. It gave him constantly shivers when they were talking. Make a wrong move and she shows you her (tiny) fangs, that was the jinrou remembering himself, always when he was talking with her. Tatsumi rolled up his sleeves and offered the girl his wrist. "I can´t hide anything from you"

As the girl sank her fangs at the others arm, Mr. Muroi came back, rolling the wagon where the European tea cups and the well formed can were placed. For the younger jinrou wasn´t it new that a Shiki could feed on a jinrou, also about the fact that they were able to read the memories of the other. Nevertheless he was curious about the information which the girl would get and placed the tea. It shouldn´t take much time...Before the jinrou could end his thought, a scream echoed through the windowless hall. Abruptly, Sunako tore her fangs and covered quivering her mouth. Disgust, pain, fear reflected her eyes and threw almost up all the containing thing in her stomach next to couch. "Sunako!" The two jinrou immediately bowed to her, and the younger one rubbed her back. The other Shiki on the coach didn´t move. "What´s wrong?" Mr. Muroi asked in a worried tone and got no answers from the caughing leader. Sunako just watched the expressionless Shiki with teary eyes and suddenly stood up.

"Show me your neck" the girl demanded in a harsh tone. Without hesitation the okiagari pulled on his collar, showing a scar on his neck which seemed to look like that his head got once cut off. "It wasn´t on purpose" Tatsumi calmy said all of sudden. The girl glanced at her servant, showing him she wasn´t angry, more or less she was shocked. Holding her forehead in pain, she sat on the coach again and let her serve the tea. The blue-haired jinrou felt guilty enough to clean the mess what his little master made and went to get a mob.

"Sunako are alright?" the monk asked her again. However the girl just shook her head and left the hall for cleaning herself. Mr. Muroi was clueless and looked at the Shiki who still hasn´t talked. His eyes were staring blankly at the floor and finally beheld the tensed author. He rose his head to make him sit up straight, revealing that he didn´t want to be respectless. The jinrou was setting his glasses right. Would he finally talk? "...How do you feel?" Other beginning to start a conversation weren´t brought to Mr. Muroi´s mind. Expected, the Shiki didn´t talk and began to stare at the monk.

"There is no use to talk." Tatsumi came back with a mob in his hand. "I´ll tell you what Sunako saw after I have cleaned this" As the floor was nearly clean Tatsumi began to tell what happened in the village:

With a bit struggle the head of the jinrou popped out of the blanket. The scent of burned body lingered in the air. However the smell of these villager were gone, so that meant the jinrou could walk around without hiding. Tatsumi tried to free himself of this blanket, even if he wasn´t pinioned by it. His body felt damn weak, because his whole body was in the middle of regeneration. The half of his face, his left hand were hurting, it was burned to black which made the skin hard to cover it.

Only slowly, the jinrou stood up and leaned against the wall which gave him shadow. The man was tired, his body felt numb and nothing from his energy was left. Well, the situation couldn´t be worse With wobbly legs, he moved forward out of the shadow but still having the wall as a strut, He gritted his teeth. How was Sunako? Was she able to escape? Tatsumi could only hope and caught sight of many dead body on the rain wet soil. They weren´t covered with blankets like he was once. Nevertheless their skin weren´t damaged by the sun (beside the fire burns) which showed these Shikis were already dead before the sun went up. The blue-haired jinrou sighed and looked around. Nothing more than a pile of dead bodys that were handed over the sun. His eyebrow rose. When the Shikis were suffering under the sun, they were killed before they passed out of the pain. " Amateur" it came out of Tatsumi´s mouth and detected a drag mark on the mud. A grin formed the sadist´s lips and began to follow the trace.

He almost forgot that it used to be more people on the ground because some of the Shiki´s scent were already blurred but he still had them in mind. The smell of fresh burned flesh was over overlaying it. There was someone! Tatsumi came to conclusion and tried to find the okiagari as soon as possible. But the man suddenly stopped, what happened, if he find that brat. He shook the thought away, it didn´t concern him, he would only kill him if he saw him and continued his search.

However he was already standing at the end of the fresh hint. A dead end? No, the trace ended in front of a buldge which seemed to be a grave for him. To his luck, he found other buldges on the ground and finally detected the Shiki where the burned scent came from. It wasn´t Natsuno who he was expecting in first place however Tatsumi wasn´t able to identify the Shiki. From the body structure he could tell, it was male but his clothes weren´t telling him anything. They were covered in mud and were black from the fire, also this thing who the jinrou was a few feets away didn´t even had a skin.

Was he dead? Akwardly, Tatsumi was asking himself even though he saw the worse condition of the Shiki. Wasn´t it already clear? There was a stake piercing the center of the bagged Shiki. He was dead, would Tatsumi normally say, but something was telling him, he was totally wrong. If that thing was dead, how did he burn under the sun with a stake in the center and actually what happened when somebody was completely burned. Carefully, the man neared the skinless Shiki, he noticed that the corpse moved his finger when the jinrou found him.

It was morning, the sun was shining, in time like this, Shikis should be in their dead sleep and scream in pain if they met the sun rays. But the Shiki didn´t burn anymore, he had no skin. His head was on the floor and his arm were laying beside his legs, it almost looked like the Shiki was praying. What a lonely sight, Tatsumi thought and poked the Shiki with a stick which he randomly picked up on his way here. He got no reaction, the Shiki didn´t move. Still, Tatsumi was aware that the okiagari was somehow alive, his intuition told him this, and Tatsumi could always trust his stomach. The stomach was always right! He only needed to get a reaction of the not moving Shiki. If he simply dragged the okiagari with him without any proof that he was alive, he would only upset Sunako with the horrible sight. The man had to do something. But what? He didn´t even know who the person exactly was.

His head suddenly rose. It wasn´t impossible that the brat was somewhere hiding. The grin grew, now everything made sense. He finally finished the puzzle. Tatsumi tried to find the scent of the other younger jinrou and immediately followed it like a dog would do. His speculation was right, there was another person wrapped in the blanket not far away. The smell of the cheeky kid came richly out of it. He was in there and these dead playing Shiki pulled him and Tatsumi (oresame) out of the the pit. A Shiki was able to full fill such a stunt, even if it happened very rarely. Nevertheless it didn´t interest Tatsumi anymore and grabbed a shovel which he could find on the ground. Somebody must have left it after the fire broke into the village. The man kicked on the cloth cocoon, seeing the unhurt face of the sleeping teenager in there. "What a lucky kid..." the yellow-eyed jinrou said. He couldn´t let the boy get away, this time he wouldn´t repeat his mistake and swung the shovel like a bat. It was good enough to part the head of somebody and he turned his gaze towards the jinrou again.

Tatsumi wound up ready to hit, he swung and... didn´t hit his target. He fell, touching the soil with his arm. A cold hand grabbed the jaw of the twenty year old man and smacked him on the mud, giving him a bloody nose. The jinrou didn´t know what exactly happened, he just stared back at the red pupils which had the intention to kill him. His limps were numb, he was too weak to fight. Only his hand was unconsciously pushing against the face of the attacker. It was the Shiki from before. The man struggled with no success. He felt the fangs which were thrusting in his hand clumsily. "Shit..." If this would go on, he might really die. He needed to do something. While trying to get the skinless corpse from him, he grabbed with his free hand the shovel. The Shiki didn´t care about the other man´s movements and began to grip on the other´s neck, he grunted.

The older okiagari furrowed his eyebrows, finally identifying the person by his voice. It was him! But Tatsumi already swung the tool, making a cracking noise as he hit the neck. The body fell down like a wet sand sack and turned into a twitching-state. Tatsumi looked at the parted head which was still biting him. The light in the Shiki´s eyes weren´t vanished. It was still alive. However the okiagari wasn´t a threat anymore. The jinrou grabbed the head which was only out of muscles and bones and stared at the tired Shiki. The undead blinked, opened his mouth like he was trying to speak and then closed his eyes. Was he sleeping or was he now dead? Tatsumi tried to figure it out but before he could end it, another problem was awaiting him.

The body of the Shiki began to budge. It stood up and moved his hand as he wanted to find something. Was he searching for his head? The man looked at the head and turned his gaze to the body again. However it touched the wooden stake on his chest and suddenly hammered on it. After this he pulled it out and then pushed in the open flesh wound again. The Shiki repeated the actions several times until the Tatsumi took the stake from him. There was no single word the man could say, he knew only that it was suicide which the thing was trying to do. He smashed the stake with his bare hands and slumped on the mud. He threw the head in front of the Shiki´s feet.

Tatsumi breathed heavily, he had no choice to ask " Instead of stabbing yourself, would you help me to find something to eat. I promise that I won´t kill this brat. I just want to return to Sunako and if possible with survivors of our kinds." The Shiki placed the head on his neck making it grew together in an extraordinaire tempo and silently nodded. Skin began to appear on the flesh, however it healed very slowly, giving the jinrou another surprise. The okiagari disappeared from the sight of the yellow-eyed man and returned after nearly three hours. He had a bag in his hand where blood was dropping out. From the smell Tatsumi could tell that it was the scent of animal blood. He growled, remembering the bad taste but it was better than nothing. The Shiki threw the bag on the thighs of the starving jinrou and took the shovel to dig more graves for the fallen villagers.

Tatsumi gradually bit in the raw flesh of the hunted rabbit, sucking the little creature dry. The taste was horrible but at least he restored his energy. He threw a glance to the quite okiagari, he was completely healed, from head to toe. Only the scars from the stake and the shovel didn´t disappeared...

"So he did this to himself. Now I can understand Sunako´s reaction. It sure was a horrible..." Mr. Muroi said, trying not to look too worried and turned his gaze towards the Shiki who stared at the place where Sunako was standing earlier. "Shiki can survive without a head as long they don´t starve, right?" Tatsumi nodded. "But without head, Shikis can´t accept the blood no matter what. If you pierce a needle in the vein, it will immediately stop the blood in flowing through it, so we can´t make a so called `blood-transfusion` "

The gray-haired jinrou pushed his glasses right and got up from the couch to look after Sunako however she came back before the monk could knock on the door of the bathroom. "It doesn´t matter what kind of miracle happened, at least he escaped from the massacre" The small Shiki spoke and walked towards the daydreaming Shiki, so she stood in front of him. She smiled at him. "We´ve survived the horror and we want to live the peaceful" Her eyes were fixed on the other okiagari, her smile disappeared "You´ve lost friends, you can´t visit your family, you need blood to survive... Do you hate me?" Tatsumi took instinctively a step forward for the case if the Shiki would attack her however Sunako rose her hand to him to make him stop.

The girl was nervous and stared at the silent Shiki. "Do you hate me, Tohru-san?" The Shiki whose name was finally told simply sat there, not understanding the other undeads, then he eventually said something. "Who?" Tatsumi turned his face to the wall like he knew it would happen. Suprised, the girl tried to repeat her answer with more explanation. "Do you hate me that I´ve turned you into an okiagari, Tohru-san?" The blond moved his head a bit and pointed at himself. "Me? You´re talking to me? Therefore my name is Tohru, is it?"

Silent filled the room. The leader looked at Tatsumi for an explanation, even Muroi-san did the same, and pierced the innocent playing jinrou with their gazes. Tatsumi scratched the back of his head, ordered the confused teenager to go upstairs and suddenly grinned. " He was like that from the beginning. But he does know that he is a Shiki and was serving with other Shikis Sunako. Then this means he knows that he killed people" The two stared at the jinrou with disbelief but didn´t say anything. The black-haired eternal child leaned her chin on her fragile hand, she was thinking. "Should we tell him everything? But I´m afraid that it will turn out bad. Yuki-san is also alive. Would he return to him?" The black eyes went to two jinrous, Tatsumi didn´t seem to care and Muroi just shook his head. " It is a psychologic problem, we shouldn´t do something. It could damage him" The girl agreed with the junior monk in the end. She didn´t want to see an okiagari who lost his sanity.

**Well the flashback ended suddenly because I didn´t want to write further. I´m bad at explanation and I think that everything shouldn´t be revealed at once. In my opinion it is more interesting. (even if I don´t know whether the story is interesting) Please review to know what you think and about the sudden miracle (I have an explanation for that too). Is it too corny or neat? (I just like making drama) Thank you for reading so far!**


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